UMass Lowell Baseball Walks off Holy Cross, 8-7

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On Wednesday night, after 17 games on the road, the UMass Lowell Baseball (6-12) team finally played their home opener at LeLacheur Park against the Holy Cross Crusaders (8-11). They made it quite an opener night as they would walk off the Crusaders 8-7. Jake Fitzgerbbions got the walk-off single to left field that scored PR Scotty Brown. The win makes it two in a row for the River Hawks.

In a mid-week game, sometimes you never know what you may get. For both of these teams, there was good and bad. In UMass Lowell’s case, there were 10 walks issued by the pitchers to go along with three hit batters. Both of these stats have been a problem for the staff since the season began. After the game, head coach Nick Barese thought “This is the way we have played so far.” He added, “The offense is going to carry us.” The pitching needs to be more competitive in the strike zone.

The River Hawks jumped out to a 5-1 lead through three innings. Michael Simes, who has had a bit of a tough start to the season dealing with illness, looked good in the first three innings of work. In the fourth, he started losing command of his stuff. His coach believed “he got tired.” Holy Cross would bat around in the fourth scoring four times to tie the game at 5-5. Of the six walks, Simes would allow four of them in that inning and they would all score. His line was 3.1 IP, 1 hit, 5 R, 4 ER, 6 BB, 4 SO. He threw 87 pitches, 46 for strikes.

The Crusaders would take the lead in the sixth with a two-run inning. Again, walks would play a big role in how those runs came across the plate. Freshman Nolan Geisler would walk three of the hitters he faced in his third of an inning on the mound. Barese thinks more time on the mound will settle him down at the college level.

The River Hawks battled back by scoring single runs in the seventh, eighth, and ninth to get the win. 3rd baseman Rowan Masse (2-for-3, 1 RS, 2 RBI) hit an RBI double to left that scored Alex Luccini who reached on an infield hit then advanced to second on a wild pitch. That made it a 7-6 Holy Cross lead. In the eighth, Carlos Martinez got an RBI single to left scoring Fitzgibbons to tie the game at 7-7. Those runs came off Crusaders relief pitchers Andrew Nesson and Pedro Leon who each gave up earned runs in their one inning of work.

Brian Foley (2-0) came on for UMass Lowell in the ninth. He would give up a leadoff base hit to Connor Cooney, who then stole second base. One of six stolen bases Holy Cross had in the game. Cooney would go no further as Foley got the next three hitters on a foul fly out, a fly out to CF, and then a ground out to second base. In the bottom of the ninth, the River Hawks faced Nick Harrison (1-1) and Hart led off with the double to dead center part of a 2-for-4, 2RBI night. He was pinch-run for by Scotty Brown who was then advanced to third by a sac bunt from Joseph DeLanzo. That set the stage for Fitzgibbons and he delivered a base hit to left that LF John LaFleur made a diving attempt for but it one-hopped in front of him scoring Brown and giving the River Hawks an 8-7 walk-off win.

For Fitzgibbons, the hit was part of a 3-for-5, 1 RS, 2 RBI night as the team catcher. The River Hawks banged out 11 hits. Alex Luccini also had a two-hit game. UMass Lowell now looks ahead to a weekend non-league series with LeMoyne that begins with a doubleheader on Saturday.

Our interview with Coach Barese: